Article
“I really enjoy sending out invoices.”
“Sorting spam from my inbox is my favorite pastime.”
Things successful entrepreneurs don't say.
Then there's the joy of your website going down. You get to spend hours on the phone with tech support, including the bit where you're on hold and the day disappears.
Or maybe you prefer a treasure hunt. Somebody stuffed a file 50 directories deep. Nobody knows where it is. Now you get to spend hours looking for it.
Really fulfilling work. Right up there with feeding a fax machine for two hours a day.
The joke gets less funny when you recognise something from your own working day.
Notice the chores you keep putting up with
Sending invoices, sorting spam, searching for files and creating reports by hand are the kinds of tasks I'm talking about. You can spend your day doing them without enjoying a minute of it.
If you're wondering what to automate, start by noticing which of those chores you resent. The task you've caught yourself complaining about is worth a look.
You don't have to pretend that making one more report by hand is fulfilling. You can want that time back.
Pick one routine task you'd be happy to stop doing manually, and look at how to automate it.